Hutchison Just The Tip of BSU Basketball Success

Being named the national college basketball player of the week, scoring 44 points against San Diego State, leading the Mountain West in league scoring average at just over 27 points per game, one would think without Chandler Hutchison Boise State basketball would be doomed! No question Hutchison takes BSU to a new level but it became very clear against Utah State the Broncos have other weapons to stay in the battle when Hutchison's game seems to be on safety lock. Hutch had a mere 2 points in the Broncos game against Utah State Wednesday night and still led by five at the half. Utah State went on a big run to start the second half and the Aggies built their biggest lead at nine points 54-45 and it was obvious Hutchison's game was still sputtering mostly because he was double and triple teamed all night. So, Lexus Williams hit some shots, Marcus Dickinson knocked down 6 of 8 shots for 16 points and Alex Hobbs added 14 as they kept BSU in contact, erased a 9pt Utah State lead and set up Hutchison to score 6 of the teams final 8pts in a 26-13 run that resulted in a 71-67 victory. Hutchison ended up with 16 total points but the bench contributed 30 points for a truly team victory. Ironically it was Williams who canned a pair of free throws with 2.4 seconds remaining to seal the deal. On any given night "any" Boise State player can make the difference. Yes, Hutchison is the leader but when he struggles there is so much talent to pick him up, know it's not if but when Hutchison explodes. At 16-3 the Broncos have tied their best 19 game start ever, going back to the 1980's and now travel to Reno for a Saturday showdown against Nevada 17-3. BSU is 6-1 in league and Nevada 6-0. While the game is worthy of the hype the only thing that'll be decided is which team has 4 losses. Remember, the Wolfpack has to travel to Boise next month and face what could be another sellout Boise State crowd. Maybe we should start seeing what crazy thing coach Leon Rice can do to make it happen. On the other hand, "winning" has a nice ring to it and coach Rice seems to have a knack of making that happen.